Heroes and Contemporaries (Text Only)

Heroes and Contemporaries (Text Only)
David Gower

Derek Hodgson

First published in 1983, Heroes and Contemporaries reveals a new aspect of David Gower’s personality – that of an astute and intelligent observer of the game and of his fellow players.In this book he has chosen a collection of the people in cricket he most admires and has written about them in conversational style, with immediacy and critical appreciation.Gower’s encounters with these people behind the scenes – some of the most important players of our time – give us insight into their characters, their strengths and weaknesses, an insight which we would not normally have just by observing them on the field or by reading newspaper reports. His views on the captaincies of Bob Willis, Mike Brearley and Ian Botham are especially revealing. There is also displayed in this book considerable understanding of the psychology of such contemporaries as Ian Botham and Geoff Boycott, and an important chapter is included on Ray Illingworth, Gower’s staunchest champion and sternest critic.Although Heroes and Contemporaries is basically about other people, it also tells us a great deal about David Gower himself.

COPYRIGHT (#ulink_a6be2258-fffd-5e36-8b11-24b531b8aaa0)

Fourth Estate

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/)

First published 1983

Copyright © David Gower Promotions Ltd 1983

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780002170543

Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2016 ISBN: 9780008240172

Version: 2017-01-13

CONTENTS

Cover (#u45f03adf-63fe-55a5-9a20-ed13846186cb)

Title Page (#u6ebd3a88-5501-5bba-b8b6-a7bbcdfecb9a)

Copyright (#ulink_5ac11e19-5b2b-5403-b4d5-48233f9c19e2)

Foreword (#ulink_09309a51-9f52-5dd5-b96c-71b5df9eab2c)

Ian Botham (#ulink_312fbb4f-d350-5780-a989-3b771eee645c)

Geoff Boycott (#ulink_213ecbf9-0925-5cea-a5be-936cc6c5ed1c)

Mike Brearley (#ulink_8dc92668-d3b1-5b22-b6be-3cd351c6aa62)

Greg Chappell (#litres_trial_promo)

Brian Davison (#litres_trial_promo)

Sunil Gavaskar (#litres_trial_promo)

Graham Gooch (#litres_trial_promo)

Richard Hadlee, with the New Zealanders (#litres_trial_promo)

Ray Illingworth (#litres_trial_promo)

Imran Khan (#litres_trial_promo)

Allan Lamb (#litres_trial_promo)

Dennis Lillee, with Rodney Marsh (#litres_trial_promo)

Clive Lloyd (#litres_trial_promo)

Derek Randall (#litres_trial_promo)

Viv Richards (#litres_trial_promo)

Andy Roberts (#litres_trial_promo)

Bob Taylor (#litres_trial_promo)

Bob Willis (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue: David Gower, by Derek Hodgson (#litres_trial_promo)

Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Other Books By (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

FOREWORD (#ulink_2d55ac15-06c5-5080-b6fe-246457b936ba)

It seems almost a little late to be writing about heroes. To me, heroes were the people I watched in my schooldays, when the curtains were drawn and the television switched on for the start of a Test match; and the players involved appeared far more mystical than they ever could after my own adoption by the game that I had admired from afar for so long. Sobers was an undoubted hero, as he was no doubt to thousands of other followers – how could anyone with his natural ability and grace not be? Another who easily qualified and who still seems to be playing well in South Africa, was Graeme Pollock, whom I saw score a hundred at Trent Bridge against England in the first Test match my parents ever took me to see. Similarly, John Edrich, when he scored three hundred against the New Zealanders, became another hero.

To me, then, these people, apart from coincidentally all being left-handed batsmen, were extraordinary and worthy of idolization, and that is how they mostly remain. Some of the mystique disappeared when I started to play first-class cricket amongst them; though I shall never play against Sobers or Pollock unless, in the latter’s case, the situation in South Africa changes rather quickly. I did just manage to overlap the start of my career with the finish of John Edrich’s. My first captain was Ray Illingworth, whose presence when I first reported to Leicestershire overawed me.

What I have gained, therefore, is an understanding of the characters involved, so that the people I have chosen to write about in this book have no lesser ability than my boyhood idols and are thus heroes of the same standing but without the mystique.